Guessing PINs, One Partial PIN at a Time.

Entering digits of a personal identification number (PIN) is a common form of authentication. One variant of this scheme is to request the digits from a random subset of positions, which is sometimes called a . In this paper we consider strategies for guessing the PIN when a partial PIN scheme is in use, which allows the quantification of the strength of this mechanism.

Acquired Esophageal Strictures in Children: Morphometric and Immunohistochemical Analyses.

Background: Esophageal strictures (ES) in children are not well characterized pathologically. We report unique histopathologic analyses of resected acquired ES and control esophagi (CE).

Methods: Muscle layer thicknesses were measured in intact well-oriented areas; inflammatory cells were counted in the most inflamed high power field (hpf).

Short-term prognostic value of perioperative coronary sinus-derived-serum cardiac troponin-I, creatine kinase-MB, lactate, pyruvate, and lactate-pyruvate ratio in adult patients undergoing open heart surgery.

Objectives: To investigate the release pattern of different cardiac metabolites and biomarkers directly from the coronary sinus (CS) and to establish the diagnostic discrimination limits of each marker protein and metabolites to evaluate perioperative myocardial injury in patients undergoing cardiac surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).

Patients And Methods: Sixty-eight patients undergoing first mitral and/or aortic valve replacements with/without coronary artery bypass grafting and Bentall procedure under CPB and blood cardioplegic arrest were studied. All cardiac metabolites and biomarkers were measured in serial CS-derived blood samples at pre-CPB, immediate post aortic declamping, 10 minutes post-CPB and 12 hrs post-CPB.

Gardner Fibroma: Clinical and Histopathologic Implications of Germline APC Mutation Association.

The proportion and clinical characteristics of Gardner fibromas (GAFs) that are sporadic versus familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP)-associated have not been clearly established. We report on 7 patients diagnosed with GAF who underwent APC sequencing and duplication/deletion testing. Three (43%) were found to have underlying APC germline perturbations consistent with FAP; these patients had multifocal (1) or large; unresectable (2) GAFs.

DICER1 Mutations and Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma: Evidence of a Direct Association.

Context: DICER1 germline mutation carriers have an increased predisposition to cancer, such as pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) and Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor (SLCT), and a high prevalence of multinodular goiter (MNG). Although differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) has been reported in some DICER1 mutation carriers with PPB treated with chemotherapy, the association of DTC with DICER1 mutations is not well established.

Case Description: We report a family with DICER1 mutation and familial DTC without a history of chemotherapy.